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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26220439">Dark Lance is gone and now i'm in his place</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Lance (Voltron), Dark Lance (Voltron), F/M, Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mental Health Issues, Suicide Attempt, Time Travel, Violence, only mentioned - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:54:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,573</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26220439</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Lance commits suicide he wakes up in an alternate reality one that the lions chose for him the previous lance was hurting his teammates can he make the others trust him all the while dealing with the knowledge that they are alive again?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Lance (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>91</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dark Lance is gone and now i'm in his place</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I hope you enjoy this is my first serious fic so feedback would be appreciated.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Everything wore heavy on him each day and step tiring him even further. His body was far from okay aching and stinging, screaming with each hour, his mind troubled and unfocused; he had become a machine over the last two years where everything went the worst way possible.</p>
<p>He didn't even want to think about it anymore, but he couldn't stop thinking afterthought in one big mush when he started. Keith leaving the team and never coming back, hearing of his death through the blades that there were no remains left to bury, a quiet funeral burying the jacket and gloves he left behind, his mother insisted on burying her blade with him, no one heard from her ever since.</p>
<p>Clone Shiro killed Pidge when she wasn't looking. She wasn't aware that she couldn't trust her teammate. He could still remember her earlier that day, teasing Hunk about his new cooking horror and how he got persuaded into trying it.</p>
<p>Her head lay cracked on the castle floor, the dark red a disgusting contrast to the stainless white.</p>
<p>No one even knew about her death until later that afternoon when he had walked in with a food bowl for her and noticed Hunk holding her so gently as if she was porcelain, blood covered his clothes, red-faced tears coming down rapidly. He couldn't stomach it, vomiting next to the door.<br/>
Hurrying to get Allura and when they'd figured out who it was, Hunk couldn't stop himself.</p>
<p>He had never seen him so angry before he came out of that fight bloody one legless an Altean prosthetic replacing it.</p>
<p>This funeral had the same atmosphere filled with sobs. Hunk's eyes looked ahead of him dull, unhappy, knowing he would never see Pidge again. They had decorated her head wound in immortal flowers per Altean tradition. Allura had insisted telling them she was a brave soldier.</p>
<p>When he lost Hunk, he didn't expect it to happen so suddenly. They were both distancing themselves from each other, Hunk from grief and Lance because Hunk had told him he needed space. Because of the significant loss of paladins, they couldn't form Voltron Allura had been searching for replacements in secret. However, no one's quintessence satisfied the lions, who still gave sad whines and isolated themselves from everyone but Lance and Hunk.</p>
<p>They were the only ones who could pilot the lions and talk to them. Still, they couldn't convince them to let others steer them. They didn't try again after the first attempt, so the last thing he would imagine was refusing yellow Hunk into her cockpit. The Galra were getting more robust with each year, Hunk had Galra on every side, and yellow wouldn't budge.</p>
<p>Lance was on his way. He tried going faster, but blue wasn't red. She was calm and made for water. As soon as blue realized what was happening, she growled in distress, a weak yet desperate thing. He could feel her gentle and calming waves become rough and out of control, she recklessly wrestled her way through the Galra ships and soldiers.</p>
<p>But when they made it, it was already too late. Lance saw Hunk get shot pain painting his features multiple times, the injuries sluggishly bleeding his wounds merging into one big red hole. The Galra cheered, and he couldn't stop them from taking Hunk's twitching body as a prize, his eyes slowly rolling to the back of his head.</p>
<p>He took the yellow lion back out of the hands of the Galra and calmly made his way back to the castle where Allura and Coran surrounded him.</p>
<p>"Where's Hunk?" was the first question that came out of Allura's mouth when she had finished checking him for injuries.</p>
<p>He didn't know how to reply, his limbs locked in place, he didn't feel sad that Hunk was gone, he felt numb as if his brain still hadn't registered. I had seen Hunks limp body. These thoughts stirred around his mind. What if he was kept alive and forced to fight in the arena like Shiro? He never thought he'd think this, but. He prayed Hunk wasn't going to live. He didn't want the other to suffer through even more trauma.</p>
<p>The longer he stood still, the faster the pair concluded and, he watched as Allura's face formed into an expression of terror and, as Coran's eyes gathered tears, which he hid behind his hand as they fell.</p>
<p>"Lance," Allura gasped from the panic that welled its way into her chest, and Coran led them both to the lounge area, forcing them to sit down.</p>
<p>"What happened, my boy" Coran forced out the sorrow apparent in his pinched eyebrows.</p>
<p>"Yellow," Lance whispered, and the other two paid him full attention "she… wouldn't open for him,  she left him to die".</p>
<p>"Why" Lance could only ask "why" desperation reached through in his tone as his temples started stinging their way to his dry unblinking eyes, a sob finally erupted from his throat "why wouldn't she let him in!" he raised his tone, hands forming into fists.</p>
<p>"I think," Allura spoke up, murmuring "his quintessence it" she stopped her sentence, swallowing before speaking again.</p>
<p> "my father designed the lions to match with quintessence. He didn't think they would become sentient, and when they did, it was already too late to change it, as quintessence is what makes them function" she took a deep breath.</p>
<p>"Ever since they became sentient, they decide who pilots them based on personal opinion. Potential Paladins caused trouble and uproar came from civilians because even if their quintessence matched the lions, they weren't guaranteed a seat in the pilot's chair".</p>
<p>"Princess, you can't think that's what happened! Coran spoke up.</p>
<p>Lance looked on confused, and Allura lifted her head to make eye contact with him.</p>
<p>"After repeated traumatic events that alter someone's personality to an unrecognizable degree or quintessence manipulation, a paladin of Voltron is often rejected by their lion, not because the lion doesn't want their pilot anymore but simply because their quintessence isn't compatible with theirs and they physically cannot open for the other"</p>
<p>Silence surrounded them all as Allura finished speaking. The rest of the day went by in a blur. They had planned a funeral the very next day in the evening. They spent that day cooking Hunk's favorite dishes, placing a picture of the team in their youth next to his makeshift grave in the castle. They had him seated next to Pidge and Keith. The last thing they did was light candles for them.</p>
<p>He remembered asking Coran if there is a chance he might still be alive kept captive by Zarkon and Haggar, but he didn't get a verbal answer, only a sad hand on his shoulder.</p>
<p>He couldn't sleep that night and spent it listening to the moans of grief from yellow. The other lions kept trying to comfort her, but in the end, she ended up crying the whole night.</p>
<p>The only hope they had was Shiro, who had disappeared six years ago. They had been losing hope, Allura was taking it the hardest. She had a connection with him. They had been close,  and no matter what, she didn't want to give up.</p>
<p>No matter how hard you wanted to argue with her, she would always say that he's still alive and waiting and that we are disappointing him. She refused to believe that all the paladins except Lance are dead, lost to oblivion, having become immortal entities living alongside the white lion.</p>
<p>Everything came to a boiling point when he woke up to Coran shaking his eyes wide and fearful. He immediately knew what had happened. Allura went alone. She went into a Galran base to search for Shiro independently, they argued, and it had pushed Allura.</p>
<p>Lance was frantic as he threw on his paladin armor and grabbed his bayard, blue rushed them to where she felt her quintessence. He climbed aboard the ship carefully. His memory cuts off beyond that point Coran told him it was for the best. He often wonders what he saw that made him forget it, what made him block it out, what state Alluras wounds were in that Coran didn't want him to be at the funeral.</p>
<p>But nowadays, he's not a paladin of Voltron. He is a freedom fighter. He didn't have much choice; after all, he can't go back home. Earth went extinct his family; they are all dead; it keeps getting more challenging to do work, trying to save the universe alongside other people knowing its a lost battle.</p>
<p>Some sneer at him when they realize he is the last paladin of Voltron 'the last hope of the universe' they mock. Others look at him in sympathy or approach him with condolences. Visiting Coran at the castle is his favorite thing to do.</p>
<p>There are no other people there except Coran. His eyes are weary. And his face looks tired and old, but he still makes tea and his exceptional paladin food for them. They often relax and talk about the past or the future. Sometimes they don't do either, just sitting in peaceful silence before Lance has to go back on the battlefield.</p>
<p>He'll miss him. He'll miss the lions letting him pilot them, all of them coming to his aid when needed, but he has to do this. He cant keep on living this way. It's tougher to pretend he has something to keep living for when everyone he has ever loved is gone.</p>
<p>He had left the castle with a final goodbye. He was going to a cliff on Arus. When he arrived, he sat on the cold ground and breathed before taking out his weapon of choice.</p>
<p>The sword he held in his hand felt heavy, and he touched the blade to make sure it was sharp. Lance was going to kill himself. The more he thought of it, the more relaxed he started feeling. Taking a deep breath, Lance quickly slashed his wrist. He flinched violently and felt faint from the blood coming out of his vein.</p>
<p>His hand was shaking, and in agony, he took the blade in his in bloody hand and ripped through the other wrist's skin, the deep cuts bleeding fast, he grew weak, collapsing from his sitting position laying down.</p>
<p>He watched the stars and thought it was ironic the one thing Lance wanted to experience was space. Still, he never expected to have his dreams come true sometimes. He wants a simple life back home he misses it.</p>
<p>His eyes inched close with every minute. The pain wasn't so bad anymore, and as he passed out, he felt accepting of what had happened. He didn't want it to any different lance was glad that this was the end.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>When Lance woke up, he could hear the soft sound of a fan and feel the softness of the bed underneath him. Lance groaned as he opened his eyes. His wrists ached pulses of pain running from them to his fingertips.</p>
<p>Something was wrong, sluggishly he lifted his head from the comfortable pillow with the startling realization that this wasn't his room, and this certainly wasn't where he killed himself. When he finally got up, he stumbled to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet bowl before vomiting. The awful sound of food chunks hitting the water echoed the small bathroom.</p>
<p>When he finished emptying his stomach, his eyes started focusing on the other things surrounding him. It was a familiar sight moisturizers, face masks, and colorful shampoo and condition bottles covered the floor as if the person. Who ventured into this room had been angry.</p>
<p>He left the bathroom and eyed the bedroom. The led colors in the corners were dark blue. The closet door was wide open, clothes he didn't recognize were handing from the hooks. It almost looked like his old room in the castle just significantly messier.</p>
<p>He stopped sleeping after Hunk's death. He remembered how he left it; trinkets and gifts from other teammates lay on his desk, and a mountain of pillows and blankets covered the floor, and bed for sleepovers. His breath hitched as he remembered his first years as a paladin.</p>
<p>Everything felt strange. Lance couldn't keep the thought from drifting into his head, and panic climbed its way into his chest. Why had he been taken back to the castle? He hoped it wasn't Coran who found him. Lance didn't think he could handle the pain he'd see.</p>
<p>When Lance exited the room, he realized that the hallway he was in was the paladin sleep quarters. The other doors were for the other paladins. This made him conclude that it was his room. He wondered if Coran had been the one to mess it up like that. He didn't have a memory of leaving it so disorganized.</p>
<p>He sped down the halls he had to find Coran, who most likely treated him when Lance started thinking about it, his wrists began to tingle. He looked down at his wrists to see two thick, light brown scars giving contrast to his natural skin tone.</p>
<p>He entered the control room only to see no one. Coran only hung out here. He only went to the lounge when Lance came over. Unease settled in his gut, so he left and started walking the hallways looking for any indicator Coran was in any of the rooms.</p>
<p>When he neared the hangers, he heard Black call out to him, her purring urging him to come and see her. Lance entered the room to see all of the lions sitting next to each other looking different, their coats of paint looking fresher, brighter, and sleeker than before he left.</p>
<p>"Hey Black," Lance spoke, and Black only purred back as if excited to see him "what's wrong, girl?"</p>
<p>"<em>Paladin, we are glad to have you here</em>." Black finally spoke</p>
<p>
  <span>"Glad to have me here?" he questioned her. "I guess I did survive," he chuckled, and Black made a confused huff.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"</span>
  <em>
    <span>The Lance of this universe was an awful human."</span>
  </em>
  <span> She began, and now Lance was the confused one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"</span>
  <em>
    <span>He was so cruel hurt our paladins locked them away in the castles cells they are hungry and thirsty he was weak and greedy, power-hungry undeserving of his loving family back home."</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lance stood still. He didn't know how to feel about everything that was happening. "This," he gestures all around him, "is an alternate reality?" he asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he felt Black nod in his head "</span>
  <em>
    <span>yes, we looked for the right Paladin in every reality, one that would be able to handle the distrust the lance of this reality has produced someone mature, understanding, someone experienced in fighting and strategy."</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>"You were the paladin that stood out. You have suffered through much pain. We want to help you heal have a real family again."</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"So, where did the other Lance go the bad one?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And felt Black lift her head in pride, "</span>
  <em>
    <span>they were sent to your reality to suffer in your place."</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lance choked on his spit, fully knowing the other Lance was most likely dead now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Black lion didn't notice and continued, "</span>
  <em>
    <span>please protect your family help them. They are down in the castle cells."</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lance nodded in determination, his heart beating he'll get to see his friends again time to get his shit together.</span>
</p>
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